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AFES Privacy Statement

Introduction

Your privacy is important to us. The following statement outlines AFES procedure on how we manage the personal information we hold about our members and supporters. It is an AFES policy to respect the confidentiality of information and the privacy of individuals. The AFES Privacy Statement will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and practices and to make sure it remains appropriate to the changing environment. Any information we hold will be governed by the most current AFES Privacy Statement. We are committed about being open about how we use personal information. Where our documents ask for personal information, we will generally state the purpose for its use and to whom it may be disclosed.

Purpose of collecting information

AFES is committed to training people in their understanding of the Bible and the Christian faith. This training will take place in the context of personal relationships and may extend over many years. As such, personal information about people who we are involved with and who attend the activities of AFES is collected primarily for the purpose of maintaining contact with students in our groups or supporters of our work.

AFES supporters may provide personal banking information to us in order for us to collect funds from them by various means as donations to the ministry activities of AFES.

What information is held?

Because of the nature of the services provided, we may ask for a range of personal information. The type of information we may collect can include (but is not limited to):

name

address

contact details

and the type, name and date of events attended.

We obtain most of this information directly from our members and from maintaining records of information provided in the course of ongoing ministry. This information may be collected at public meetings, smaller group meetings, from responses to our communication to you, filling in our Financial Response Form or from other public sources (e.g. the White Pages).

Given that we are dealing with large numbers of staff, students and supporters and as we need to identify you within our record keeping, we may seek to collect a piece of personal information from you that is in some way unique to yourself. Under the Privacy Principles (as listed in the following) this will not be any Commonwealth Government identifiers (e.g. Medicare number). For example, we may seek to ask you for only the day and month of your birth. This will help us keep your records unique from other members, especially if we have members with similar names, and no current address information.

If an individual makes a financial payment to AFES then other information such as bank account details and credit card information may need to be collected. We will always endeavor to provide a mechanism whereby the individual will be able to give anonymously.

At some of our activities we may ask for sensitive information to be collected. For more details see the section entitled ‘Sensitive Information is subject to greater restrictions’.

How do we use this information and whom may we disclose it to?

While we may send you information regarding the activities of AFES from time to time that we think may be useful to you, we are conscious of the need to respect your privacy.

We may from time to time make offers to you for your information to be passed to like-minded ministry organisations. If you consent to this offer then we will keep a record of your intention as well as pass on the information you have indicated to the nominated organisation/s.

The personal contact information you give to us may be made available to AFES employees at the discretion of the relevant staff members. This availability of information will also extend to other AFES paid employees, as well as other volunteers who AFES deem it appropriate to see your personal information. At all times we will maintain a record of those employees, and volunteers. This is in keeping with our stated purpose for the collection of the information.

We will not disclose your banking details such as card numbers, expiry dates, account numbers and the like to any other party without your explicit consent, unless compelled to do so by law.

In the event of a listing of AFES members being produced which would then be made available to friends of AFES, we will produce a separate application form for the collection of information for such a list. This form will include (but is not limited to):

the nature of the information being collected

the purpose of the collection

the nature of the distribution of the list

an avenue for people to not have their information listed.

Sensitive information is subject to greater restrictions

Some personal information we hold is ‘sensitive’. Sensitive information relates to a person’s:

racial or ethnic origin

membership of political bodies, religions or trade unions

sexual preferences or activities

criminal record

state of health

medical history

As part of our Privacy Procedure we hereby undertake to collect only the following information that is deemed to be ‘sensitive information’:

Racial or ethnic origin

The form of information collected may include country of origin or ethnicity.

Membership of political bodies, religions or trade unions

The form of information collected will be restricted to the denomination, location and name of the church that the individual may attend.

State of health, medical history

On occasions we may seek to collect this information, when we consider that the collection is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to life or health of an individual. This would particularly apply when we are dealing with children who for a stated and agreed reason will be absent from their parents and under our care. In such a case, a separate form will be provided for the collection of such information. This form will include (but is not limited to):

the nature of the sensitive information being collected

the purpose of the collection

how the information will be stored and used

how long the information will be stored for

an avenue for people to not have their information collected – and the consequences of us not being able to collect such information.

Criminal record

During the course of collecting and processing information for the Working with Children Check (under the Child Protection Act) it may be made apparent that an individual has a criminal record. This information will only be held as according to the guidelines set down in the Child Protection Act. Under circumstances other than the collection of information pertaining to the Child Protection Act, sensitive information regarding criminal records will not be collected.

We will not be seeking to collect information regarding membership of political bodies, trade unions, or information regarding sexual preferences or activities.

Handling of financial information

The personal contact information you give to us may be made available to AFES employees at the discretion of the relevant staff members. This availability of information will also extend to other AFES employees, as well as other volunteers who AFES deem it appropriate to see your personal information. At all times we will maintain a record of those employees, and volunteers. This is in keeping with our stated purpose for the collection of the information.

We may from time to time make offers to you for your information to be passed to like-minded ministry organisations. If you consent to this offer then we will keep a record of your intention as well as pass on the information you have indicated to the nominated organisation/s.

If you are a financial supporter of AFES we will, unless expressly requested otherwise, disclose your name along with the amount and frequency of your donations to the following persons:

The staffworker you are supporting, or if you are supporting a campus generally then to the campus director or team leader at that campus or their nominee;

To the treasurer or person responsible for monitoring the financial situation of the campus or area the staffworker/campus group you are supporting is associated with.

We will not disclose your financial account numbers or details to any other person or organisation, unless we have your express written authority or unless compelled to do so by law.

If you wish your donation to be made anonymously, in terms of the staff you are supporting, we have facilities in place to enable this.

Management of personal information

AFES seeks to train its staff and volunteers who handle personal information to respect the confidentiality of members’ information and the privacy of individuals. AFES regards any breaches of your privacy to be a very serious matter. We have appointed a Privacy Officer to ensure that the management of your personal information is in accordance with this statement.

Safeguarding the privacy of your information is important to us, whether you interact with us personally, by phone, mail, over the Internet, or other electronic media. We hold personal information in a combination of secure computer storage facilities and paper based files and other records, and take steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.

We may need to maintain records for a significant period of time. However, when we consider information is no longer needed, we will remove any details that will identify you or we will securely destroy the records regarding you.

AFES endeavours to ensure that the personal information it holds is accurate and up-to-date. We realize that this information changes frequently with changes of address and other personal circumstances. We can update your information over the telephone or via email.

Requests to view and make amendments

Any individual can at any time view or amend the information that is held on them by AFES. Requests to view or amend personal information can be made by contacting our office: